Variety (Sep 1928)

Wednesday, September 26, 1928 PICTURES VARIETY FOX AFTER ALL 1ST NATL-W. B. aOSED; STAFF TO STAND I>etall3 of a Warner-Flrgt Na- tional deal were about settled yes- terday with agreement of both par- ties on details. This development had come bursting through within tbe.week. , • Up to yesterday It seemed that an understanding had been reached on general terms with the likelihood that it would take a few days more to iron out trifles. . ■■ ■■ • The Warners, on tajklng control, are said to be disposed to leave the rirst National personnel, remain for the present as It is now con- stituted. A positive agreement ':to pass stock to the . Warners by F. N. stockholders had not been made and, from accounts, it was unset- tled Up to yesterday just how tl^at stock would be passed. A voting trust controls F. N.. Fox holds about 28 per cent of F. N. through Its West Coast subsidiary. First National stockholders seem Ingly desire to retain an important Interest in the producer as a money maker. They believe it can be re stored to the first rank of producers. Their purpose in doing business with-Warners is to get the benefit of the Warners' Vitaphone labora- tory and knowledge for F. N. fea tures. No Immediato Change It is understood that as the War- tiers buy in on F. N. there will be no present change in their respec tive studios now in operation or location on the coast. Stolen Noise Loai Angeles, Sept. 25. When the man in chai-s<? oC reproduction and approving synchronization at one of the studios started his film a recent morning he was amazed to hear a loud humming, so' loud as to assume the proportions of a roar. In haste he sent for the chief of recortiing. The latter listened with interest. "We'll do it . over," he said without hesitation. "You've got in there the, noise from a flock of IS bombers that passed over the studio yester- day aiternoon." FREE LUNCH MOB ANNOYING P.A.'S IN STODIOS Idea Firmly in Mind of Wiiliaih Fox — Got It When Starting to Nego- tiate with New York Inde Exhibs — 7,000 to 9,000 Theatres Still Unaffiliated EXHIBS AS TRADERS 25 Grafting Grub Grab- bers on Regular Daily Routine Billing MaUer for Talent and Producers of Pictures May Be Settled by Hays Off ices m Los Angeles, Sept. 25 Studio press agents are up arms against a group of some 25 al leged newspaper writers arid fan magazine hacks who have the habit of calling about lunch hour at the various studios, sticking around for the p. a.s to buy them a little grub The habit has become regular with tl;is clique. And they have routined calls at the studios In such a way For the Warners, it la said they j that they have a day set aside for expect a certain support from the each and miss but few. Studios theatres of the First National fran- they pass up are the ones which chise holders upon going into F. N. have no restaurants on the lots. The F. N. stockholders appear to At oiie of the Hollywood studios feel that such support would readily last week eight Arrived, for the free be given the Warner product, es- lunch on the same day. It took peclally in view of its proven box five different members of the. pub office power in the talking line, llclty department to give individual F. N. does not operate theatres attention to the octet for fear that and is not a theatre owner; it Is a they would not be pleased during producer only, with exhibitors as the luncheon period, also to see that its .principal stockholders. they did hot pull some raw stunt Finkelstein & Ruben, northwest with stars and officialis while they chain operators, lean the Warner where in the studio restaurant, -^y, , At one of the studios where these Moe Finkelstein is now: in New people congregate at least once a Tork, closeted for a good part of week, one man is specially assigned the time with Harry and Abe ] to herding and feeding of the lunch and Abe Warner. Abe Warner admits that several deals following the Stanley acqulsl tlon are now in the fire. While refusing to deny the Keith buzzings, Abe Warner stated: "That deal is as far from completion as the earth is from the sky." Abe also said: "My brother, Harry Warner, will be in full charge of the Stanley circuit." hounds. He holds them in the pub- licity department until all are as- sembled then marches them all to the dining hall in lock-step fashion, back to the main entrances, bids them one of those wincing good byes and returns to his desk trust ing some one else will have the as- signment next time the hunger mob appears. One of the studios, It is said spends about HOO a week feeding this, tribe. William Fox i« laid to have re- cently stated -that he is after a chain of 5,000 theatres in this coun- try as a goal. The idea came to Mr. Fox when he started to negotiate with Greater New 'York independent exhibitors to come into the Fox chain by out- right . purchase or an agreement. Those negotiations are still active. To effect what would be by far the world's greatest theatrical chain, Fox is. said to have iri mind inde exhibs traveling the country, acting as traders for. Fox in per- suading; other inde exhibs to enter the Fox fold. . At present there are about 7,000 to 9,000 ind<?pendent picture houses operating in America. This number may represent around 2,000 individ- uals, known as inde exhibs, free of any .show business chain attach- ment or alliance. In the total of the inde theatres are around 1,200 circuits, figuring a circuit as. hav- ing two or more theatres In opera- tion. Hinge oh New York Considerable dependence Is. placed by Mr. Fox upon the suc- cessful outcome of his current deal for the Greater N. T. Indes. That Is expected to act as a lever to more ea-sily lead indes all over to entertain a Fox juncture proposi- tion. Inde exhibs in New York who have a good line on their brethren outside say tiiere is a good pos- siljility for Fox to put over his countrywide deal. Fox always has been looked upon as an; independ- ent producer, distributor and ex- hibitor. With this rep and his present standing as a leading pro- ducer of box-offlce pictures, to- gether with his own Fox circuits and recent acquirements of many film houses, east and west, besides his own building campaign. It is claimed that Fox occupies just now a more advantageous position to Soft for ^Lonesome* Wives as Sales Aids . Several of the Now Tork dailU'S yesterday. cajTled ynrivs about the formation of an or- panization. of 231 women called "The. Association for the Im- provement of Divorce Laws," which will work for a law which grants divorces in New York State on the. grounds of lonosomoness. None of the papers or news a.ssooiations printing the stories or sending it out over their wires seemed to connect the ' lonpsomc" angle with the Uni- versal tivlking picture that comes into the Colony, New York, Sunday. Talkers Shoot Up Salaries of Stage Made FOm Actor Chicago, Sept. 26. Charles Kemp, vice-president and sales manager for Clancy . produc- Debaters Steamed Up Los Angeles, Sept. 25. The Issue of motion pictures is to tlons. producers of the Will Rogers settled at last, Oct. 25, the de- travelogue series, is using wives of bating team of tiie University of Pathe branch managers to pep up c^jifornia in Los Angeles, located their husbands in plugging sale of the Ropers film. Kemp wired the wife of each branch manager, appointing her assistant sales manager for the Clancy org;anizatlon. Upon receipt of a telegram of acceptance from the Avives he shipped each one a set of Ropers silver plate. Wives promised in their wires to see that hubby hit the ball. in Hollywood, will meet the team ot the University of Sydney, Australia, to decide the question, "Resolved, that the worlia would be better off without motion pictures." The Hollywood university, nat- urally, has the negative. Debate will be held at the local school. Saved Time and Money Dual Sound and Sight Script a dual script—s'^ far aa known th'^ low. , first of its kind. The script will | i.^^iTVO ;us a puiilc f'»r jjliotopntpliinp solicit inde theatre additions than any other chain. Cash Talks One of Fox's strongest appeals to the inde exhib is his willingness to part with cash when ' trading, Other large chains in the past have flaunted before an exhlb only the advantage of coming in, with no coin of moment mentioned. It is said that inde exhibs hear ing of the Fox idea have offered to go on the-road = for him to corral other indes. While they do not agree that Fox could reach his enormous goal of 5,000 theatres they say ho has an excellent op portunity to build up a tremendous circuit in the manner proposed. Fox is. likely. to pain 200 inde houses within Greater' N. Y. in his current movement. He has prac- tically 70 in the bag now. Should those be closed for. It Is said Fox will experience little difficulty in procuring the other ISO. With the New York move accomplLshed, ex- hibs state there will be a wave all over by indes toward the Fox idea New York Houae In Contracts were reported bein -Signed this week between Fox and the N. Y. Indies, prr.-llmin:iry to final closing in arovmd 60 days. Thrise are said to t;tkn In ap proximately 70 houses at proscn •.vith a t( iitMlive li.-Jt ot o'. t 100 in • Los Angeles, Sept. 23. Talkers have enhanced the value of the services of screen actors who had previous stage experience more than 100 percent; Walter Pldgcon, who was getting around $760 a week as a. loading man for silent drama, is now doing leads in the talkers at $2,500 a week. Conrad Nagei, doing leads In, the silent for around^ $1,500 a week is now getiiiig $3,500 or $4,000 a week. Talking Cartoon Figures May He Hershfield's Next Harry Hershfield, cartoonist and columnist, may allign with MetrO- Goldwyn-Mayer, to be the first to project talking cartoon figures upon the screen. The talker subject has been broached to the cartoonist. He Is considering It. If accepting, Harry is to supply the dialog. It may be in the style of the "balloon" gags of type cartoons, and which ho has made famous In his "Abie, the Agent" subject. ' Actors, producers, directors and. supervisors arc stiirtinp a fight for proniinenco in screen, program and poster billing, each group claiming drawing power greater than athe others. It is rei)orted Will Hays haa been given the assignment of straightening the matter out this season. Several of the film company- heads, fighting: the established stars during the past few seasons and endeavoring to establl.«;l'i a company trade mark with the public instead of a star who could bo engaged by a competing company, have been gradually reducing the size of bill- ing formerly given players and di- rectors. This season the actors are de- manding, more sp.aco. Players and directors claim that the name of a producer on isi picture doesn't mean a thlrig-at the box office. Other play- ers figure themselves strong enough to precede the title of their pictures. This latest protest from the play- ers seems like a final stand against forces which, are likely to Win out in the end. Producers have worked closely together against building up names .that can be lost and have ecently been concentrating more on selling their trade mark to the public. Despite this there is still a total indifference among audiences to tlie names of the producers of pictures and even reading' Interest la still mainly confined to newa about the players rather than any- thing else. Though only accounting fpr per- haps 20 percent of the total draw of a picture well known players still top the drawing power of a director by 14 percent, while trademarks are not found of any drawing value, ac- cording to many Investigations among the picture going public. Tho producers. also claim that certain credits have to go in and that, when those are taken care of, only a certain space Is left for stars and featured players which cannot bo Increased. Actors say that the size of billing given the producers could be, easily reduced without any loss. -an d--- the^^Tt'nAain <J ►»r-=-to-^f ol-- Los Angeloa, Sept, 25. Frank Tuttle in di''ectinp "His Privuti' Life" stai-ring Adolphe ^Tcn- jou for Paramount,, performed hi.s . thp sH»»nt and talking v.-rsions work in record breaking time. There are a few r-xpl.'iniitf)ry tiilcs. Tuttle completed a 17-day job In j The spoken kind will he iitli.'.r>'d 16 days ?24,000 under the budget ; by tho players and Liter servo ;,!so appr(ii)ri!\ted. [as a dialog of the l.Uking vfr.sion. 'J'hc contract .signing follows the ' r' si'^'nai ion of Aaron Kar>iro from hid. orpanizaLion of indie exhibs in tlic same district, with moat of hin nieniber.'j IntereHted in the Fox swing. Willi Sapiro'B re:,ir;riaLlon la.sl Friday, th« Independent Motion Picture E.xhibitors' Association dis- .solved. It had been predicted for Rcver.'il weeks. With the dissolution all- members were released, from contracts signed with the associa- tion. Among the N. Y. exhibs making the preliminary deal, with Fox arc reported the Boligino circuit of 8 theatres in the Bronx and 9 down- town, in New York; Brandt Brothers with 11 in Brooklyn; Rachmii & Rlntzler, 8; Henry Siegol, 7; Jack Springer, 8; Rosenswelg circuit of Brooklyn, 8; and 8 or 10 smaller exhibs with one or two houses; Additionaliy interested are said to bo the Small & Strassburg cir- cuit of 22 theatres in Brooklyn and Queens; also the Steiner and i!lind'er.mah-:M<'yei & Schenleder rf!r:4*hlly merged circuits with 27 houses, I-'ox's Walter Reade deal is re ported at present only simmerinp lleado is said to ?5C clearing snarls .lion.:: his circuit so it shall be fiee (o j)l;i"e as he wills. ^^,S<i I) J i-o=.i S:-ro.pX)r-U;d^h;LV-i n g==givjin. Artliur White, the liltn buyr for ' ll:e I. M, I', 10. A„ a contra'L at jy,'),')f)0 yp-arly for two years. With the di.^solulion oC the S.apir'o -m-- p.anizalion there are no niemliers h'fl to buyfor. White, is t;;il.] to h-- t.hre;itoning a legal aetion li> H'Si 'he dlssi.)U)tion procceijlri^i.s. 1st Air Race for Film The first air race staged solely for a picture was recorded at Mines Field the day following the close of the air meet here. Harry J. Brown, making "The Air Derby" for Educational, started eight fiyers. Seven were former array men and the clghtJi the star of the two-part picture. Reed Howes. '*Crichton" Called OfiF Pa,ramount has canned a picture ver.slon of "Admlrablp Crichton" in which Richard Dlx was to be starred. It has had several story treatments but found nothing of use. ' When' Cecil B. de^^ille prodiiced "Male and Female" for Paramount several years ago, he took the meaty spots from that play and Inserted them Into his film. With this stuff having been before employed Para- mount omclal.s feel It would be easily recognized. Mankie's Delayed Trip Los Angeles,' Sept. 25, Hennan M a n c k t c w i c z , little brother to overworked newspainT- inen, will not rnalce hid propo.sed foi-ay for wrliiti-c talent until after Jan." _ . Th'eh lio 7wlll zo tb^^ew T"6rie, - repi.ster at tho Alpon'iuin, and-look ;u'>Hmrl. Tho tn'W crop of scenario and (iile writers will be tlckete^l to Par- .inioiint .'-tU'lio, Hollywood, about .M,ii---)i 1. Mi-anwhlle the cold oast- oin wlnt.tr will hiive been endured.